APT Travel Group reassures agents following “cyber incident”

A close-up on an abstract design of a display, which is warning about a cyber attack. Multiple rows of hexadecimal code are interrupted by red glowing warning text. Part of the display is reflected on a shiny surface. The image can represent a variety of threats in the digital world: data theft, data leak, security breach, intrusion, etc...

APT Travel Group (ATG) has managed to revive the booking systems for all of its brands after suffering a cyber attack last week.

In a statement to travel agents on Friday, ATG said it was experiencing a “network outage” that impacted some of its systems, and was investigating the ongoing issue with the help of external IT and cyber security experts.

“We can confirm that the preliminary findings indicate that ATG has experienced a cyber incident, involving unauthorised access to our systems,” the statement read.

“We are conducting an extensive investigation into this activity with the assistance of external cyber and forensic experts and our priority is to restore systems back online safely and quickly.

“We have been working tirelessly and are pleased to confirm that our booking systems are now back up and running across all brands.”

As a result of the investigation, ATG said it was assessing reports that a “very small proportion” of the company’s data had been downloaded.

“We are investigating this as a priority in accordance with our privacy obligations,” it said.

“At this stage, we are not aware of any wider misuse, dissemination, or disclosure of this small subset of data.

“If we discover that there has been unauthorised access to any customer data or personnel information, we will contact those affected directly and provide advice of relevant steps that need to be taken in response.

“We have already taken steps to notify the relevant authorities of the incident, and we will work with law enforcement agencies and privacy regulators as required.”

ATG has established a dedicated reservations team to assist agents with any booking requirements, with those bookings for tours departing in the next two weeks taking priority.

“These are our first priority. Please only call if you have urgent amendments for upcoming tours, or new bookings for upcoming tours departing in the next month,” the company told agents.

For all non-urgent needs, agents can email ATGReservations@outlook.com.

Featured image source: iStock/matejmo

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APT Travel Group ATG cyber attack cyber incident network outage